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I’m not naive enough to believe that the “war on drugs” is anymore winnable than this country’s ludicrous “war on terror”, but those who know me, know that I hate drugs… So, I was happy to learn that, facing a huge meth-amphetamine problem, an organization backed by corporations called The Montana Meth Project has sprung to life and made a seriously concerted effort to dissuade Montana’s youth from using meth.

Yep… You read that one correctly. I’m usually not one to give corporations much credit since they are usually happy to ignore civic responsibility if it will increase the bottom line for their shareholders, but in this case, a group of them have seriously stepped up to the plate, and are attempting to make a real difference.

Using some pretty hard-core TV, radio, and billboard ads, the Montana Meth Project is trying to keep kids off meth by putting the consequences of addiction right in front of their faces. They’ve realized that the usual anti-drug image of police officers droning on about jail time and fines if you are caught with drugs only reinforces the “us against them” attitude and often turns kids towards drugs rather than away from them. By instead focusing on the much more real and humanistic repercussions of drug addiction, they are hoping that Montana’s youth will avoid meth not to simply doge a meaningless fine, but to avoid screwing up their lives.

I, for one, think this is a great idea, and hold myself as an example of why it will work. I have little to no respect for the law, but I do have respect for my own life, health, and well-being. It is for these reasons alone that I have never tried drugs. Let’s hope Montana’s kids find these messages compelling.

To make a long story short, I love Full Metal Panic. I have watched both the Japanese TV series, and Fumoffu, and I’m left wanting more.

Lately I have become tired of “regular” movies and TV shows. Perhaps this is because they have become less interesting, or simply because I just want to see something different… No matter. About a year ago I began looking for something new, and along came anime. I rented a number of disks, but found that I didn’t really like any of them. Eventually Zach loaned me his copy of Neon Genesis Evangelion and I loved it. I watched the entire series in one weekend and then went looking for something new.

I checked out THEM and found that the Full Metal Panic series was highly rated and had received some very good reviews. It was listed in the category I like (big robots and romance), so I decided to drop the cash on the first disk in the series. After watching it, it was all I could do not to run out and buy the next disk. The characters were incredibly likable and the plot was compelling, if not a bit recurring. Hey, it’s anime.

Eventually, I bought the remaining disks from amazon, along with the nice box to put them in.

The plot pretty much goes like this:

Kaname Chidori, the lead female character is among a small group of people known as “Whispered”. These are a kind of human databases of “Black Technology”, which allows them to understand complex weapons technology without ever having been taught.

Clearly this ability would be convenient in the hands of the bad guys. Enter Mithril, an altruistic military group that is tasked with eliminating terrorists and drug labs all over the world. Sensing that the bad guys are out to kidnap Kaname, Mithril assigns a very very serious and dedicated sergeant named Sousuke Sagara to protect her.

Kaname falls in love with Sousuke, but he’s usually too consumed with blowing things up and over-reacting to benign events that he perceives as threats to notice. He ends up loving her as well, but is not quite sure what to do about it, which builds a romantic tension that lasts the entire series. Amazingly there is some heart warming dialogue at the very end which gives the series a little more closure than we find in most other anime series.

While many complain that FMP is simply an amalgamation of other anime series, I feel that it is one of the best out there… Or at least the best that I have seen. The artwork is amazing, and the characters are very well developed and likable.